Birth of Toyota

When your grandmother was carrying your mother in the womb, your proto-self was also briefly present as an oocyte in your mother's developing ovaries.

Therefore, part of you grew within the body of your grandmother, and undoubtedly inherited whatever trauma experienced by your grandmother up until that point.

Under 011668 philosophy, we identify by the age of our grandmother, to honor the ancestral knowledge and trauma that is collected and passed down through generations.

My grandmother was born in 1936. By 1945, she fled Tokyo to Nagano to avoid airstrikes by the U.S. I have often wondered why I felt an intense disgust towards war and patriotism from an early age. I believe it's because part of my body/cells were informed by my grandmother's somatic memory. Part of me is currently 88 years old.

Its not a perfect philosophy, but one that helps me feel more aware of history and its lasting effects, my lineage, purpose, the struggle against imperial/colonial powers, and the interconnectedness of all things. I think it actually goes way deeper than described here, as we are truly the continuous cellular embodiment of every ancestor before us.

According to the European Molecular Biology Organization, epigenetic memories have been observed being passed down for up to 14 generations.